


The Fourth Captain of the Fourth Division

by Heartofaquamarine



Category: Bleach
Genre: Drabbles, Fleshing out the characters no one else uses, Gen, Isane is kind of gay, the adventures of an unprepared captain, uses light novel information
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-10 19:58:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18414800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heartofaquamarine/pseuds/Heartofaquamarine
Summary: Isane was not ready to take charge of her division from Unohana, but circumstances have forced her hand. Ten one hundred word drabbles looking at her development over the years after she first takes up the white coat.





	The Fourth Captain of the Fourth Division

**1.) Succession**

Unohana Retsu had a bad habit, one gained over long centuries. She only chose her vice-captain based on their suitability for that role, never thinking about if they could be captain. She had had many, and none of them had outlasted her. She had not guessed that Isane would outlive her. She certainly did not think Isane suitable to be a captain. Captain Unohana made this clear in the kindest way in the letter she left behind. When Captain-Commander Shunsui announced that he would be nominating her for the position, Isane privately thought Unohana was correct, even as she accepted.

**2.) Awkwardness**

The Captain's haori felt heavy on Isane's back, but she expected that. On a practical level however, the long, poofy sleeves hung down and tangled her when she was trying to use her hands. She was already gangly and awkward and so...

She groaned as the white sleeve dropped into the inkpot on her desk, and came out sticky and black. Third seat Hanataro looked at her, gave an awkward smile, then went to get cleaning supplies. Kiyone said she should just get a sleeveless one, but Unohana wore her sleeves long, and Isane wasn't ready to leave that shadow.

**3.) Friendship**

At eleven o’clock every Wednesday evening, Isane leaves the fourth division barracks, where she’d been working since six that morning, and heads to a small bar tucked away near the seventh division. She ducks through the low door, and takes a seat in a corner, where a burly man with sunglasses sits.

Iba greets her gruffly, she responds quietly, and they both pretend they might buy some sake before remembering their early morning starts. Over glasses of water, they speak in low tones to their only equals. They’re not quite vice-captains, but still certainly not ready to call themselves captains.

**4.) Subordinates**

Third Seat Iemura was not pleased with Isane’s promotion. While he tried to hide it behind professionalism, she realised it quickly. He considered himself equal in healing, better in leadership skills, and a better fit for Captain. Still, they could cooperate. Most assumed he would be promoted to vice-captain.

Isane did not want a vice-captain constantly eyeing her job, and for the first time she put her foot down. Kiyone’s appointment was mainly nepotism, wanting someone on her side, but her sister had healed Ukitake for all those years. Iba took Iemura as his own second; Isane welcomed him to.

**5.) Training**

Itegamo clashed against Zabimaru, against Tobiume, Gegetsuburi, even Wabisuke, at least till Isane’s sword became too heavy. While she wasn’t expected to be at the same level as the rest of the captains, Isane wants to get stronger. Against Aizen she had done nothing, even as he had fled from Unohana. When Sternritter V appeared, she couldn’t even protect her patients; Kurotsuchi saved them. Kurotsuchi.

Unohana told her to stay back, to ensure her own safety so she could heal the wounded later. Now though, Isane wonders; if she gets strong enough, can she stop them needing healing at all?

**6.) Desires**

Isane’s first proper conversation with Kurosaki Ichigo occurred on one of her few visits to the human world. He was wearing a new wedding ring, a fact that Isane noticed due to starring awkwardly down at the table their hands were resting on the whole time, aware that Ichigo had defeated her with his bare hands once, even if he had forgotten.

Once his new wife Orihime arrived, Isane got even more shy. A curvaceous woman with god-like healing powers? Exactly Isane’s type, and being with her and her overpowered husband? Isane would call that hell. Nerve-wracking, sexually frustrating hell.

**7.) Reconstruction**

The Vandereich’s attack left the divisions broken. First came the graves and pyres. Few got proper farewells. Next the wounded, who filled the halls of the hospital, and the tents they were forced to use in places where the invasion had left only rubble. Then came the buildings, the ancient stones of Soul Society dragged back into position. Then the trauma. Shinigami jumped at shadows. Divisions lost almost as many to the memories of the Quincy as they did in the war. It was almost comforting to Isane.

This is where fourth squad always belonged; after the dust, stitching wounds.

**8.) Masks**

There was one skill that both Isane and Iba were lacking, one expected for captains. While their duties often prevented them, when they could, they met in a secluded place, and for hours duelled and mediated till they both nearly collapsed.

Later, the new eighth squad captain, also lacking the skill, joined them in their training by stalking them and then punching Iba. Although, thought Isane, Lisa had one more trick up her sleeve compared to the other two. Still, even if Isane didn’t achieve Bankai – Lisa pulled on her mask- she was getting a lot better at dodging ceros.

**9.) Release**

Five years after the promotion of Rukia to captain, Soul Society was under attack again. Fortunately, it was just a small attack, a group of rogue Shinigami with specific grudges against certain divisions. One was going after the Second, another against the ninth, and the most justifiable one (in Isane’s opinion) was trying to kill captain Kurotsuchi.

This one, dressed in red, had grief with Unohana, but when told she was dead, had changed targets to her division. He was strong; low Captain level. Isane ordered an evacuation, and stood against him, alone.

“Bankai.” She said.

And the mists rose.

**10.) Continuation**

The fourth division had three Captains before Isane. The original founder, a blackmarket healer hired by Yamamoto, name forgotten. Tenjirō Kirinji, the second, taught Unohana her healing techniques while she ran the eleventh division. With his promotion, she took over. For centuries.

Generations had come and gone, only knowing the fourth division as the one Unohana had created. But it was Isane’s division now. Slowly, she made her mark; she clawed healing research out from Mayuri’s hands, looked at human world advancements, and encouraged her subordinates to learn battle skills.

She ducked below a door, and adjusted her sleeveless haori.

**Author's Note:**

> Note 1: Iemura is revealed to be Iba's vice-captain in We Can knot Always Love You, one of the Light novels. It also shows Iba's adopted some of his old captain's tribe.
> 
> Note 2: Isane is stated to be in love with Unohana...somewhere. I'm sure I read it. Still, I figured that she might well also be pretty into Orihime, for roughly the same reasons.
> 
> Note 3: Itegumo means "Frozen Cloud", so I figure Isane's bankai might have something to do with mists and clouds.
> 
> Note 4: I feel like Isane might not think much of Mayuri, and might have less of a "I will accept him as useful" attitude than Unohana might have.
> 
> Note 5: The fourth captain of the fourth division thing isn't canon, but it seemed a good number and I could make the timeline fit, so let's run with it!
> 
> Note 6: I didn't include the title of each drabble in the word count, or the numbers. Each adds two more words to each drabble, which is why there's an extra 20 words on top of the 1000 in the ten 100 word drabbles.


End file.
